Last updated on November 7th, 2017 at 11:43 am
Armed with an extra hour of sleep due to the end of Daylight Saving Time early Sunday morning, Wegmans customers eagerly stood outside in line prior to the official 7 a.m. opening time of the new store at 3850 Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford, Massachusetts.
Sunday could not come soon enough for Store Manager Kevin Russell, the store’s 450 employees and the eager residents, who, according to Wegmans officials, had called, emailed and sent in social media comments since plans to bring Wegmans to Medford were announced in 2015.
“Wegmans coming to Medford, Mass?” wrote one resident on Twitter. Another customer commented, “Don’t toy with my heart. Christmas might have come early this year.”
When the doors open, shoppers at the 120,000-s.f. store first saw the expansive produce department—a nod to the family-owned company’s humble beginnings as a produce pushcart in 1916. The store has a European, open-air market feel, giving customers a sense of “visiting different shops as they move through the store,” according to Wegmans.
Both regular and family-pack sizes—the latter offering savings of 30 percent or more—are available on shelves.
“Our Medford store also has two newer features that aren’t found in our other New England locations,” said Russell, a 31-year Wegmans employee. “The Burger Bar is a family-friendly, in-store restaurant counter serving burgers and sandwiches, salads, soups, sides and beer and wine by the glass. The Pizza Shop here offers made-to-order pizzas baked in a custom-rotating, brick-hearth oven along with Sicilian-style pizza by the slice.”
“Customers want to learn where this food came from, how best to prepare it at home and what else goes well with it,” said Medford Executive Chef Arlo Trainor. “The better we train our people, the better these conversations can be.”
Wegmans Medford is the fifth Massachusetts store.
Rochester, New York-based Wegmans operates 95 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.
